Aug 7-14, 2026 · Berlin · Registration open
Solo or team · free · apply early
Sell it before you build it. In 8 days you go from raw idea to paying customers, then pitch on The Delta Stage for prizes and real VC interest.
0+
Teams in 2025
€0K
Cash prizes
0
Days of building
The thesis
in cash prizes
SummerUP flips the script on every hackathon you've ever done. The mission: sell before you build. You'll learn from cracked marketers and serial founders who've done it for real, so you never waste another week shipping something nobody wants.
Validate the idea, get paying customers on the line, then build the MVP and pitch it on The Delta Stage for cash prizes and a real shot at VC funding. Whether you're a developer, designer, or operator, come solo or bring a team. We bring the space, the mentorship, and the playbook. You bring the ambition.
What you get
Receipts
SummerUP 2025 Alumni
“We built our entire MVP at SummerUP, went on to secure six-figure funding, and now offer AI dispatching, phone assistants, and email automation for the logistics sector.”
LogBot Team
Co-founders, LogBot GmbH
2025 Podium
Zapier is for ops. Havoc is for sales.
127.8k EUR ARR potential after one week, 8+ LOIs from Figma, Gartner, Enpal, Kinetic, AWS, Shopify, K21.
Visit HavocZapier is for ops. Havoc is for sales.
127.8k EUR ARR potential after one week, 8+ LOIs from Figma, Gartner, Enpal, Kinetic, AWS, Shopify, K21.
Visit Havoc
1 in 6 couples experience infertility. Understand, plan, act, with coaches and AI in your corner.
3 couples signed up for the 500 EUR p.p. paid beta in 7 days. 34 sign-ups, 2 coaches onboarded.
Two highschool graduates built a smart collar that beats Fi Series 3 and Tractive on 24/7 health tracking, AI analysis, and 3-month battery. Berlin's first serious entrant in pet-tech.
29 early-access signups in 7 days, with EUR13.5B in global revenue potential ahead.
Visit HausPet8 days, mapped
Aug 7
Day 1 - Kickoff
Doors at 10, kick-off and ideation with CODE, Auxxo, The Delta and Atlantic, then Lukas Kneip on validating an idea with paid ads.
Aug 8-13
Days 2-7 - Deepwork
Builders Breakfast every morning and a deepdive most days: marketing on autopilot, graphs and AI, cold email, B2B sales, co-founding teams that last, going viral, AI-enabled GTM, and how to pitch.
See all 9 deepdivesAug 14
Day 8 - Pitch Day
Pre-pitches all day, doors at 16:00, the top 10 on The Delta Stage from 16:30, winners at 18:30, and the afterparty after that.
Prize breakdownWhat's at Stake
Grand Prize
€10,000
Cash Prizes
Split across the top teams on Pitch Day
€25,000*
Extra Credits & Resources
Premium tech resources from our sponsor partners
Bonus
Neo4j Winners Package
Aura credits for the top three ($500, $400, $300), plus a LEGO set, fast-track onboarding into the Neo4j Startup Program, and Neo4j swag
Bonus
Sitefire Pro
Three months of Sitefire Pro for each of the top three teams
Bonus
SumUp Masterclass*
Top 10 teams receive an exclusive masterclass with Petter Made, SumUp Co-Founder
*2025. Stay tuned for 2026.
Bonus
Venture Funding
Partner VCs explore top concepts for real investment opportunities
No gatekeeping
No ticket price, no application fee. The only thing the week costs you is the week itself.
Two in three builders apply without a team. 'Solo' and 'solo, find a team here' are two of your three options. Coming alone is the normal way in, not the exception.
You apply with proof you can build, then make your actual project on-site. 90%+ of the work happens here, so a first-time founder starts on even footing.
Who's in the room
Last year, about a quarter of the people building here were women.
We want that closer to half, and the door open to anyone who doesn't yet see themselves starting a company. A few concrete things we do about it:
Held spots
Reserved for first-time and underrepresented founders, on the same bar as everyone else.
Awareness team
People from the community, on hand all week, in case something feels off.
Founders who've done it
Eight deepdives across the week, each one a founder or an operator on the thing they actually did. Two run on Meet, the rest at CODE.
Victor
Aether Technologies
How to put your marketing on autopilot
Co-Founder & CEO @ Aether Technologies
Zaid Zaim
Neo4j
Graphs + AI: Build Connected Intelligence with Neo4j
Developer Advocate EMEA @ Neo4j, Microsoft AI MVP, CODE Alumni
Marcus Daftari
Daftari & Partners
Sales B2B 1on1: from cold calling to closing
Managing Director & Founder @ Daftari & Partners
Arne Unkrig
Arvana
From 0 to 5 Mio€ ARR: AI-Enabled GTM via LinkedIn & co in 2026
Founder @ Arvana, zero to multiple million € ARR, fully bootstrapped
Folkert Bowler
pick'em
How to go viral with your product launch
Co-Founder & CMO @ pick'em, 700K+ TikTok followers, Höhle der Löwen deal
Alan Poensgen
Antler
How to build a Co-Founding Team that lasts
Partner @ Antler, Co-Founder of Westwing (IPO 2018)
Oskar Lingk
Project A
How to pitch: what investors actually listen for
Investor @ Project A, ex-Founder, ex-BCG
Cracked operators
Pitch Day
In our corner
Partners
Sponsors
Amie
Lance
Partner with us
Help us build the next class of founders.
Core partnership, office hours, perks, food and drinks, prize contributions, or anything else that helps our teams build and sell faster. 15 minutes to find the fit.
August 7-14, 2026 at CODE University, Berlin. Free. Solo or team. Developer, designer, operator: come ready to find customers, not just write code.
Applications open. Solo or team, apply early.
